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Published: December 7th 2007
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Takahama Beach The weather has become what it’s going to be like for the rest of the winter with temperatures lingering just above freezing so that it’s cold and rainy all the time. But, during the last bit of autumn we had an unexpected Indian summer, and it was a perfect day for a bike ride around the island of Yuge! I started my bike ride early in the morning and didn’t know just how warm it was going to get, so I dressed very warmly with several layers, my hat, gloves, and scarf. But, I ended up taking a layer off every few minutes of the ride. Of course I was also doing a lot of uphill peddling, which added to the warm day. The sky was blue with big fluffy clouds and everyone seemed to be in a good mood on what was probably the last warm day we will have until spring.
Before I rode my bike up into the bamboo and pine covered peaks of Yuge, I relaxed for a while at my favorite beach, Takahama Beach. There was an old man sitting alone on some rocks that were right at the shoreline. He was singing traditional Japanese
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a resting boat songs out into the ocean. I listened a little, but he seemed to be in “a moment,” so I left him alone. I played around with some seashore anemones for a while (if you poke a stick at them, they will grab it with all their tentacles and not let go even when you try to pull it away), then I sat on some rocks that jut out of the side of a hill that descends right into the ocean and read a book. It didn’t seem like I had been reading that long when I looked up from my book and realized the tide had come in so that the path I had walked on to the rocks was now underwater. I had to do a little cliffhanging, but I got back to the beach safely.
It was now time to continue the path around Yuge Island! There’s only one road that goes all the way around the island, but it gets so small and overgrown on the eastern side of the island where nobody lives that it’s hard to believe many cars drive on it. In fact, while I was biking it, only a few cars passed
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closeup of an old abandoned boat me the whole time with drivers waving, although looking a bit concerned to see a lone biker (people don’t really bike for pleasure around here, it’s more of a mode of transportation). The road climbs up into the mountains and winds around steep cliffs that fall to the ocean below.
As I began to ride up the first hill, my mind was wondering and I was enjoying the nice views around me not paying any attention to the road. Suddenly I glimpsed something very long and green that stretched across the entire width of the road. Just as I had noticed this and realized it was a very big snake, it was too late and my bike ran right over it! I panicked, not knowing anything about snake species in this area or how poisonous they could be, and jumped off of my bike which fell on top of the snake. The snake slithered away with no signs of injury, but for the rest of my bike ride I was paranoid and thought every stick on the road was a snake. Eek!
On the western side of the island where I live along with most everyone else on
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Even the flowerbeds on Yuge are boats! Yuge, the view is mostly of the nearby islands of Sashima, Ikina, and Innoshima. They are so close that the Inland Sea seems like nothing more than a very big lake. But, the view from the cliffs on the eastern side of Yuge is of a vast sea dotted only with some distant uninhabited islands. There are many secret overgrown paths that lead from the single road down through bamboo forests to hidden beaches or mikan citrus orchards, although huge crows live in these woods and make it a little too eerie with their startling screeches for me to go very far by myself. So, I stick to the main road. Along the main road there are several small Jizou Buddhist statues standing alone or sheltered in little huts meant for the 88 temple Buddhist pilgrimage for which Shikoku is famous and of which Yuge has a miniature version (which I have described in previous blogs). So, including all the little Jizou statues and the Buddhist temples, there are 88 stops on Yuge for the people who make the pilgrimage once a month. And when I’m out riding on the barely-inhabited side of Yuge, it’s comforting knowing that I’m not
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looking at the village below on the first ascent into the mountains, right after I ran over the snake the only one out there (hehe).
There are, however, a couple tiny villages on the eastern side of the island, that when I ride my bike through, I feel like I’ve ridden back in time. Only very old people live in these villages (usually the grandparents or great-grandparents of families that live on the other side of the island). The houses are all ancient, and from what I’ve heard, these villages have a lot of history (although I’m not quite sure what it is).
The bike ride around Yuge only takes about an hour, but when you take your time and make lots of stops like I did, it took about three hours.
Also recently, I took a trip with some members of my adult English conversation group. We went to Okayama prefecture which has various sightseeing spots that the English conversation members wanted to see. However, my favorite part of the trip was when we stopped at a Muscat grape vineyard. We got to pick as many grapes from the vines as we wanted and eat them on picnic tables under the vines. They were delicious!
Lastly, I hosted a Thanksgiving pot-luck dinner for my
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a secret path leading to? adult English conversation class that was a huge success! I did this last year too, but was a little disappointed when everyone brought sushi and other Japanese dishes instead of the traditional Thanksgiving food I’m used to. Of course I love Japanese food on any other occasion, but part of the purpose of having a Thanksgiving dinner is to learn about another culture and the kind of food they eat on the holiday. So, following the strict, yet successful method I took at Halloween with the costume rule, I decided to assign recipes to everyone this year instead of letting them bring anything they wanted. This way everyone would get the chance to make a foreign dish and eat a lot of foreign food too. Of course I explained each recipe in detail, but still some people complained that the recipes were too difficult (even thought I purposely selected the easiest recipes possible!).
Yet, once again the strict method was a success! The Thanksgiving dinner was delicious and everything I hoped it would be! We had stuffing, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, cornbread, mashed potatoes, gravy, apple pie, and chocolate cake! One thing that was missing was cranberry sauce,
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a bamboo forest but that’s impossible to make in Japan because cranberries are not eaten or sold anywhere. And again this year, in keeping with the Terman family tradition, I made everyone say what they were thankful for before we ate.
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